Emitt Rhodes interview on WFMU from today

[ian]

Dark stuff, I'm kind of unhappy that I listened to it. I know he was pretty much ruined by the music industry but he just comes across really weird, possibly mentally ill. It's gonna be hard to listen to his stuff the way I used to.

http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/34720

I can upload an mp3 of it later if this show isn't podcast-ed. Props to Michael Shelley for holding it together, it had to be rough stuff.

EDIT: Here's the mp3 http://www.mediafire.com/?jyzm1hawtki

[spacepope]

This guy makes me sad. It seems like he has had a hard time for a while. The first "contemporary" interview of his I read was in The Big Takeover probably 8-10 years ago and it was the same thing. You could tell he was barely functioning. The magazine apparently took some flak for printing this interview verbatim, but I guess that's what they always do. I hope he gets better soon. Semi-related, I seem to recall the Power Pop Pop Pop guy mentioning that someone got beat up by the Emitt Rhodes Band. Guess I could look it up on the archives

[Pat K]

Dark stuff, I'm kind of unhappy that I listened to it.

Oddly enough, I've been looking forward to listening to this (and probably will tonight), and I've heard for a long time that he's obviously got a lot of serious problems, but it didn't occur to me that this might be a gigantic bummer until I just read that. Maybe I shouldn't listen.

The first "contemporary" interview of his I read was in The Big Takeover probably 8-10 years ago and it was the same thing. You could tell he was barely functioning.

I remember reading a really unsettling interview that was linked on the I Love Music forums a long time ago... I wonder if that was the same one.

[spacepope]

It's possible this is the same interview because supposedly he hadn't done an interview in a long time. If I recall correctly, Emmitt must have set up the interview on one of his more lucid days because the author showed up at his house and Emmitt didn't know what was going on.

[Pat K]

Sometimes I wonder if he lost his grip completely as a result of his music biz experiences, or if he was predisposed to mental illness/personality disorder/whatever from the start.  If it's the latter case, sometimes I think that maybe in a weird way it's better that he never became a huge success, because who knows what kind of bad things could have happened if he had access to lots of money/drugs/bad people in that kind of a mindset. Like maybe in a weird way remaining so obscure might have saved his life. It's small consolation, I know, but sometimes it's the only spin I can put on things that keeps his story from being too unbearably sad to think about.

[mostlymeat]

Wow, this is amazing.

He sounds a lot like Spike.

[ian]

I kind of oversold it, that post was before I went back and read other interviews with him over the years since then. What I get from it is that while he's gruff and kind of dark, he's hardened in his ways and it isn't a thing where he's at the end of his rope psychologically in this particular interview. That kind of made me feel better.

His obsession with homosexuality is a little sad, it's hard to tell if it's outright homophobia or "just the way people talked back then". Which in and of itself I guess is still homophobia.

But man, if his first album isn't a work of sheer genius...

[Omar]

Semi-related, I seem to recall the Power Pop Pop Pop guy mentioning that someone got beat up by the Emitt Rhodes Band. Guess I could look it up on the archives

"I still can't believe those guys in The Emmit Rhodes Band jumped Speech from Arrested Development." -- A caller on an unfortunate incident at the 1992 Pop 'N Fresh Fest, 6/19/07 (the second call from the Quad-P guy)

[Pat K]

Listened to this while making dinner last night (I burned it - THANKS Emmitt) - holy macaroni, that fucking guy.  It was funny how even Michael Shelley didn't really know what to say afterwards. Just, wow.

It was great to hear him play guitar again though, even if it was just for like 9 seconds. There's absolutely no way that "album" of his is ever going to see the light of day, though, from the way he was talking about it.

I'm sure I'm not the first person to wonder, but seeing as he's still obviously capable of playing well and he needs money so bad, why the fuck doesn't he just book a few fucking shows? Even if it's just him solo, he could book a few of the right sized rooms over the course of a couple weeks, play his back catalog and make a KILLING, I'm sure.  Whatever.

[fletcher munson]

Yeah, he should do shows.  I remember reading an interview with him years ago and thinking he sounded kind of bonkers.  If you like Emmit Rhodes' stuff, you might like Dwight Twilley's Sincerely.